Guilford County School Officials Want Lawmakers To Support Lead Testing

The Guilford County School system plans to ask lawmakers for help with lead testing in their buildings. This comes after elevated levels were found in drinking water at three schools.

District officials continue to flush water lines in some buildings and are determining how many faucets need to be replaced. They believe that was source of the lead contamination, because the levels significantly dropped once the faucets were changed.

Superintendent Dr. Sharon Contreras says the average age for a school building in the district is around 51 years old, and they need help to address the problem.

“How do we make sure that all of the schools in this state are able to regularly test the lead levels in the water" says Contreras. "Do water quality samples and then make any adjustments or revisions that need to be made. They're costly, so we need some support to do this."

Currently, state law doesn't require school districts to test for lead in drinking water. Last year, a bipartisan bill was introduced to require testing in public schools and some day care facilities, but it died in committee.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools recently found a similar problem when it tested taps.  More than two-dozen schools in the CMS system had high levels of lead contamination in their water.

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